GameStop Shares Edge Higher Near 52-Week High After Series of Insider Purchases

Shares of GameStop Corp. traded near $27.33 on Tuesday, up modestly, remaining near a fresh 52-week high after a series of open-market purchases by Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cohen and other directors.

The stock closed Monday at $27.23 after reaching as high as about $27.42 during the session, clearing its prior 52-week high. Over the past year the shares have ranged from $17.79 to the current level. Year-to-date the stock is up roughly 35 percent.

Cohen bought 700,000 Class A shares on Oct. 2 at an average price of $24.41, according to a Form 4 filing, for a total of about $17.1 million. Additional purchases by Cohen and directors including Nat Turner, Alain Attal, James Grube and Lawrence Cheng were disclosed in recent weeks. All reported insider transactions in the period were purchases; no open-market sales by Cohen were disclosed. Cohen's holdings are reported at roughly 41.6 million shares, or about 8 percent of shares outstanding.

The buying followed GameStop's second-quarter results, released Sept. 8. Net sales fell 18.7 percent to $790.2 million, largely because of the prior-year Nintendo Switch 2 launch, planned store closures and the divestiture of French operations. Operating income rose to $160.2 million, the highest second-quarter operating income in the company's history. Collectibles sales increased 57 percent to $356.3 million and accounted for 45.1 percent of net sales. The company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook to more than $650 million.

GameStop reported $5.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and digital assets as of Aug. 1, along with an investment in eBay common stock valued at about $4.9 billion. The company has also disclosed a planned exchange of approximately $1.4 billion in zero-coupon convertible notes for shares.

No company statement addressed Tuesday's modest share-price move. Analyst coverage remains limited; one firm recently initiated coverage with an outperform rating and a $32 price target. The next earnings report is scheduled for Dec. 9. The recent advance has tracked the disclosed insider buying and improved profitability metrics rather than a new operational announcement.